Tuesday, October 8, 2013

We’re excited to have Kristin Kuhns Alexandre at Pimp That Character!
Today, one of her characters, Neci Stans, from GEM CITY GYPSY, has a
problem she faces and she’s here to talk about it.

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Guest Post by Neci Stans

It’s 1917 and the world is changing before my eyes. We gypsies used
to be important to everyone in Dayton because we trained their horses.
Now everybody wants a motorcar. Then there’s the war.

America has been
sucked into the war.

I’m 19 but I feel older. So much has happened in the last two years.
My experiences have made me feel old. Like all those voices crying out
as the ship went down. That’s the moment Lord Pool leaned over and
pulled me out of that freezing ocean. He pulled Ezra’s dog Theda out
too. Theda and I were so grateful to be alive.

I was on deck when the German torpedo struck our ship, The Lusitania.
It was frightening. The first blast tore through the bottom of the ship
and you could feel the deck heave. By then, everyone knew we were in
trouble. My hosts, Mr. and Mrs. Hubbard told me to jump into the water
and swim for my life. They were so calm as they explained that they were
going to go down with the ship. They wanted to make sure they died
together. But before they walked into the cabin holding hands they made
sure my dog and I jumped over safely.

For the first time ever I felt completely, frighteningly alone, far
away from my wonderful mom and my clan of gypsy horse trainers from
Dayton, Ohio. We are respected in our hometown and consider ourselves
royal. When my grandma Miltilda died, thousands of gypsies from all over
America came to her gravesite and stood in the rain for hours. Some
even jumped in her grave.

But those are the old days. We are still gypsies and not considered
good enough for upper class people in Oakwood. They think of us a a
novelty and watch us leave with our caravans for Tennessee. But their
sons and daughters stay far away.

That’s the reality of it. That’s why I want to be someone else by the name of Neci Star.

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About the Book:

When you read “Gem City Gypsy” you must conceptualize a whole world.

Gypsies.
Socialites.
The Wright Brothers.
The KKK.
Industrialization leading to WWI.

So many vivid elements. The story is about a gypsy girl who must leap
over bodies to survive the sinking Lusitania and escape murderous
Germans who kill her mentor in Ireland. She later returns to her
hometown, recreated as a wealthy woman trying to meld into the upper
class. Neci Star captures our imagination and heart as she claws her
way out of one class and into the abyss of another.
Purchase your copy at AMAZON.

Alexandre was a co-founder of Earth Day 1970 and worked on staff with
House Beautiful Magazine and as a contributor to Town & Country
Magazine, The Christian Science Monitor and The Daily News. Her
celebrity luncheon series for the Chairman of Ammirati & Puris
Advertising at The New York Yacht Club was acclaimed, and she has also
worked as a co-host and producer of Enough Is Enough a syndicated talk
show for WLIW-TV, a PBS affiliate in NYC. Alexandre has worked as a
publicist for The Economic Development Association of Puerto Rico and
Champion International U.S. Plywood. She is a NJ Board Member of The
Humane Society of America and resides in Delray Beach, Fl. and Nantucket
, Ma. with her husband DeWitt.